AL SOCIET IC Y G O O F L A O M E E G R I E C H A T GROUNDWORK Furthering the Influence GROUNDWORK: of Earth Science Furthering the Influence of Earth Science Celebrity meets science: Hollywood’s environmentalism and its effect Amy Gajda, Department of Journalism, College of CELEBRITY ACTIVISTS: THE PROS Communications, University of Illinois, Gregory Hall, 810 The easy, superficial answer to whether Hollywood can sell the need for urgent action would be “Yes, of course!” One can S. Wright Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA, [email protected]; reach that conclusion simply by looking at the apparently suc- Susan W. Kieffer, Department of Geology, University of cessful advertising and marketing strategies featuring celebrities Illinois, 1301 W. Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA, currently underway. [email protected] Toyota, for example, has credited movie stars Cameron Diaz and Tim Robbins as the perhaps unintentional leaders of the Prius movement after the two showed up at the 2003 Academy Awards Leonardo DiCaprio, movie star, stares out from the cover of in separate Prius hybrids. A Toyota communications executive the May 2007 issue of Vanity Fair. He looks both serious and told the San Francisco Chronicle that such a happening was “the sad. He’s wearing a black parka and crampons, perfect for kind of advertising that money could never buy.”2 exploring the icy wilderness around him. The ice at DiCaprio’s Vanity Fair, the magazine that once featured a very pregnant feet is melting, and nearby sits a baby polar bear, looking up at and nude Demi Moore on its cover, would certainly agree that him as would an adoring fan. The polar bear also looks sad. celebrities have the power to influence. When the first green issue hit the newsstands in May 2006, it featured on the cover THE GREEN ISSUES OF VANITY FAIR not a scientist who had done research on global warming or So begins the second annual “Green Issue” of Vanity Fair, an unknown environmental activist but Julia Roberts, George the high-flying magazine’s ambitious, in-your-face attempt to Clooney, Al Gore, and Robert Kennedy, Jr., all wearing shades convince its readership that climate change, sustainability, and of green. Breathless environmental coverage gushed that this greenhouse gases are of critical and immediate concern. A quote edition proved that environmentalism was super cool and that from Theodore Roosevelt in tiny, filigreed typeface fades into the green was glam3. The Toronto Sun punned that global warming melting ice almost like an editor’s afterthought: “The conservation was suddenly hot4, and the Denver Post noted that the first green of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve issue helped to signal a “tipping point” in America’s grasp of that problem it will avail us little to solve all others.” global warming5. The movement has been labeled a “bandwag- It’s clear that the magazine’s marketing department (one that oneering social change” by New York magazine6. The Hartford boasts of a total audience of 6.3 million for Vanity Fair and Courant opined that “[g]reen is the new black” and “[e]co is chic” readers with an average income of $72,3031) believed that a and “eco consciousness has the stamp of hip,” attributing the photo of DiCaprio, not a quote from Roosevelt, and certainly trend in part to “celebrities like Leo DeCaprio.”7 neither photographs nor words from the Intergovernmental Suddenly, and perhaps thanks in part to the linking of celeb- Panel on Climate Change, would sell magazines. rity and cause in Vanity Fair, “melting ice caps” were “way hot- The more important marketing question should be: Can Hol- ter” than any other social movement in Tinseltown, according to lywood celebrities sell to the masses the need for urgent action Defamer, a celebrity-watch Web site.8 A Good Morning America on the environmental problems that we face? report credited “a young, elite, and very sexy group” of celebri- ties as the power behind the new movement.9 1Vanity Fair media kit, circulation/demographics, www.condenastmediakit.com/vf/circulation.cfm. 2Zinko, C., Take one wee car, add glitz … zoom! 19 June 2006: San Francisco Chronicle, p. A1. 3Two examples: Kyles, K., Eco-Tripping: It’s cool to go green. 14 August 2006: Chicago Tribune, p. 6; White, J., It’s easier to be posh and green. 12 May 2006: Orlando Sentinel, p. E4. 4Giese, R., Time to think green. 14 April 2006: Toronto Sun, p. 23. 5Kennedy, L., Gore rides earth-alert momentum. 28 May 2006: The Denver Post, p. F1. 6Andersen, K., So we’re green. Now what? 23 April 2007, New York, http://nymag.com/news/imperialcity/30635/. 7Morago, G., Eco chic: The marketplace has figured out there’s green in being green. 22 April 2007: Hartford Courant, p. H1. 8Defamer, “Hollywood trendwatch: Melting ice caps way hotter than passé pandemic! 14 June 2006: Newstex Web Blogs, http://defamer.com/ hollywood/celeb-activism/hollywood-trendwatch-melting-ice-caps-way-hotter-than-passe-pandemic-180701.php. 9Sawyers, D., and R. Roberts, Transcript: Brad, Cameron, Leo, Edward go green. 11 January 2007: ABC News, Good Morning America. doi: 10.1130/GSAT017106GW.1. 44 OCTOBER 2007, GSA TODAY Even Women’s Wear Daily acknowledged the celebrity push Fair then acknowledged that “there are no polar bears in Ice- behind the green movement, writing that “green giants” like land” where Annie Leibovitz shot the pictures of DiCaprio on DiCaprio were using “their celebrity status to keep the environ- melting ice, but, it warned, in a seemingly desperate attempt to ment high on everyone’s agenda.”10 link polar bear and celebrity, that “[i]f current trends continue, there won’t be any [polar bears left] in Canada either.” AND CONS But not all that’s Tinsel turns to gold. Not everyone is impressed SCIENCE AND CELEBRITY: A HAPPY ENDING? when a major Hollywood star speaks out on a social issue. Not as many commentators took smirking advantage of this And, sure enough, the sniping about celebrities started almost photomontage as one might think, and that in itself may forecast immediately upon the publication of Vanity Fair’s green issues. a coming change in the way some skeptics view celebrity envi- Some questioned the celebrities’ true motivation, believing it to ronmentalism. Could it be that the old Hollywood adage that any be publicity-driven, while others suggested that celebrities say publicity is good publicity also applies to problems that scientists one thing and do another. In October 2006, celebrity news Web care about? site TMZ.com featured a story titled “Celebs who claim they’re Reverend Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evan- green but guzzle gas.”11 Julia Roberts recycles plastic bags and gelicals is credited in the first Vanity Fair green issue with drinks from a reusable coffee cup? George Clooney drives an turning the religious right on to global warming concerns electric car? That’s not enough! through Biblical references.16 Cizik told the Los Angeles Times A green-inspired Internet poster on the Grist environmental that many celebrities are now rightly moving beyond partisan news site called this particular celebrity cause “superficial green- politics and are, instead, “reaching out to tell a vital story.” ness.”12 A contributor to the Washington Times went further, sug- He suggested that even skeptical conservatives will listen to gesting that the “cute faces” of DiCaprio and the polar cub merely those stories.17 covered “enough journalistic toxic waste to put Love Canal to In the end, celebrities probably won’t play a particularly pow- shame.”13 The National Review called DiCaprio an “eco-porn erful role in Earth’s future. They can only do so much, with lim- centerfold,” and wondered if the cover shot had “more to do ited scientific knowledge and typical Hollywood shooting sched- with celebrity and V.F.’s own corporate desire for profit” than ules. But they may influence many others to care, and that could environmentalism.14 lead to powerful changes. Not only are journalists skeptical, even the general public seems Just about the time the second Vanity Fair green issue hit mail- wary of the “fakeness factor.” After all, they don’t call Hollywood boxes and newsstands, a poll taken by the Washington Post, ABC “Silicone Valley” (a pun on Silicon Valley) for nothing. In June News, and Stanford University showed that one-third of Americans 2007, the Washington Post asked its readers, “Do Hollywood star- believe that global warming is the most important environmental activists help bring attention to global problems, or do they get problem facing the world today, more than double from the year in the way of those who know what they’re doing?”15 While most before, and that seven people out of ten surveyed believe that readers were somewhat supportive and found such celebrity the federal government should take more action to help sustain work mostly harmless, others responded that they viewed celeb- the environment.18 rity causes with great skepticism, writing that they rolled their Whether this change in opinion is due to the diligent and care- eyes after hearing about celebrities’ new causes. Some found ful work of scientists, to Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth, or them “comical” or wondered about the true motivation behind a to input from Tinseltown stars remains an intriguing question. celebrity’s philanthropic work. But it cannot be bad that this awareness is happening. The move- This brings us back to the photograph on the cover of the sec- ment just may continue if those movie stars who support the ond Vanity Fair green issue, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and the environment can stay out of the tabloids and move their green- little polar bear cub.